Paid time off is not a luxury—it's a lifesaver

According to news reports, Americans are dying at younger ages. While much attention has been given to the role of the opioid crisis, my research over the past several decades also points to the insidious impact of chronic stress on the physical health of marginalized Americans, including the working class.

That’s why I am excited that New York City could become the first city in the nation to require two weeks of paid personal time for every worker. This proposed legislation would have a positive impact on the health of working-class New Yorkers.

Let me explain why I say that.

Related Articles

One workday I rushed home in the middle of the work-day when my basement flooded. Many Americans like me—I'm a professor—take for granted our privilege to tend to an emergency at home during working hours or even to attend a child’s elementary school graduation with little to no explanation and no loss in pay.

But for millions of workers across the country without a single day or even an hour of paid personal time—nearly 1 million of whom are New Yorkers—juggling work and home needs can be a nightmare.

As a low-income worker with the constant hum of uncertainty in your ears, how well would you sleep knowing a burst pipe just flooded your home and you must now choose between dealing with repairs and salvaging your belongings, or going to work to get paid and avoid being fired?

Will earning a single day’s pay instead of fixing your home end up costing you more if toxic mold grows that will send your asthmatic child to the emergency room? How effective would you be at your job the next day when you’re exhausted from worrying all night that you made the wrong choice? Or what if you decided to stay at home that day, but the lost pay means your family swelters during an urban heat wave where your disabled father may die because you cannot afford to keep on fans, let alone air conditioning?

My research shows that this constant unrelenting stress leads to a phenomenon I’ve coined “weathering.” The ceaseless daily grind over years and decades means that stress hormones constantly flood your body, when human bodies are only adapted for brief upsurges of these hormones during life-or-death, fight-or-flight situations. These hormones can raise your blood pressure, blood sugar and weight, as well as cause mood swings and sleeplessness.

Ultimately, weathering wears your body systems out. It increases the probability that working-class people develop illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes at an earlier age than other Americans. In effect, the body ages biologically ahead of schedule. People who experience weathering tend to die at younger ages.

Some of my most recent research illustrates this point. My team at the University of Michigan investigated the causes of all deaths of black and white adults since 1990. Comparing death certificates, we found that the least-educated quarter of Americans died years younger than everyone else, and the gap has grown in recent years. For example, in 1990 a white male among the 25% least educated was likely to die roughly three and a half years sooner than all other white males. By 2015 it was roughly seven years sooner. The life-expectancy gap between the least educated white men and other white men had doubled. And it more than doubled for white women, black men and black women.

This increasing death gap was caused primarily by stress-related chronic diseases. For most groups, such diseases increased early death more than rising opioid overdoses. This isn’t about avoiding exercise or eating poorly. It’s not even about emotional despair. This is about hardworking, responsible, talented people who are dying from the physical toll of constant stress on their bodies.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is proposing to give these workers something they desperately need: a break.

Under the proposed law, private employers in New York City with five or more workers would be required to offer 10 days of paid personal time a year. This would be available for any purpose: a child-care emergency, a death in the family, or a few days off to just breathe.

Given the impact of chronic stress on health, requiring employers to provide paid personal time should be a no-brainer. Workers in countries around the world have this basic right guaranteed. But when proposals like this come up, the debate is often focused on claims of costs to businesses and threats of loss of jobs in the local economy, or an imagined slippery slope to socialism. In fact, given the cost to society from the illness and premature death of too many working Americans, I believe paid personal time won’t just make Americans healthier, it will benefit the economy.

Passing this bill will be a win for almost a million workers, their employers and the health of the largest city in the country. I hope it will set a precedent. It will help to save lives.

And it’s about time—figuratively and literally. The least we can do to assist those working tenaciously to be productive and overcome obstacles to supporting their family is to acknowledge they deserve a break.

Arline Geronimus is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the Institute for Social Research.

Crain’s New York Business is the trusted voice of the New York business community—connecting businesses across the five boroughs by providing analysis and opinion on how to navigate New York’s complex business and political landscape.